CHICAGO BEARS HEAD COACH MATT EBERFLUS
Postgame press conference
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Opening statement: "Okay. Start with injuries. (OL) Teven Jenkins ruled out with the right ankle. We'll see where that is. (DB Tarvarius) Moore (is in) concussion protocol. (OL) Nate Davis came in this morning, as you guys saw, and had his back tighten up on him. Saw (Senior Director of Sports Medicine and Player Health & Head Athletic Trainer) Andre' (Tucker), the trainer, before the game. Andre'; ruled him out and we sent him home because we don't want a guy standing on two feet with a back issue. So this game right here, obviously, as the head football coach, all disappointed, accepting accountability for everything and then, really, just looking inward at myself first and that's what I ask the players to do too and the coaches. We've got to take a good, hard look at everything that we're doing and play good, complementary football. I thought we started game out solid in terms of having some momentum there with the big return, with the interception and those types of things. We have to do a good job of capitalizing on those to create momentum early. The great thing I told the players is that I said that we have evidence on tape of doing that. It would be different if you didn't have any evidence. We have evidence of that. It's the same guys in the room, same guys in the circle. So, it's important that we find a way to get that done. The only way to get that done is pulling together. It's not about pulling apart. There's going to be a bunch of outside noise, as we know, and I told them that. I said, you know what we have to do? We have to put together to find the answers because we have all the answers that we need in the room. We have evidence of that on tape and in games, playing great complementary football, playing with great passion this year. That's the one thing to look forward to. Again, we've got to take a hard look, inward look, accept accountability, and be accountable to the guy to the right and the guy to the left. That's how you do this thing when you have adversity like this. That's how you pull together, and that's the only answer you can have. But, again, like I said, I'll take full responsibility for it."
On 'what he is accountable for':
"The whole thing. The whole thing. The operation of it; offense, defense, kicking. That's the job of the head coach. So, to me, that's accountability for everything."
On 'how he defends his work':
"I would go back to we have the men in the room, and we have evidence on tape of doing it. We've played some good complementary games in terms of offense, defense, and kicking. We've scored points a few games in a row and done a good job of that. So we have to find a winning way and our winning formula to get that done."
On 'the potential of changing the coordinator':
"Like I said, we'll look at everything from the top to the bottom, making sure that we're finding the answers to move the ball down the field, play better as a football team on offense, defense, and special teams."
On if 'changing the play caller is on the table':
"I said we'll look at everything. Everything is going to be looked at."
On the offense:
"Again, we'll go back and look. Again, there were several things. Protection was broken down a little bit in terms of the route, disciplines, all those things. It's always everybody. It's always everybody. When you give up nine sacks, that's something you don't want to have happen. Again, that's an everybody thing. That's rhythm and timing of the quarterback. That's protection of the offensive line. That's route disciplines of the guys running the routes. It's all that. It's all that at the same time. So it's an everybody thing."
On if 'there is a risk of losing the locker room':
"No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I do believe in those guys. They have faith in us working together. I believe in our football team. I believe in the leaders in the football team. And, you know, we'll just have to get back to work."
On if 'there is potential to do damage to QB Caleb Williams beyond this year':
"Caleb's strong. He's strong inside. He's strong outside. He's a strong individual, and he's been through adversity. He knows how to do this. He knows how to get through adversity by pulling together. We've got to pull it together with everybody else too. It's important we get that done moving forward."
On why he 'believes the locker room is still invested':
I just know the men in the room. I know the men there. I know how they work during practice. I know the guys. I've built tight relationships with those guys, and they're going to work and pull together to get this thing done."
On 'what needs to be different':
"Like I said, you've got to go all the way down to it and look at everything. I think that's an important part of it. We need a spark in there. We need to be able to move the ball in the scoring zone, to be able to score when we get there. That's just really it."
On the end of the first half:
"We just needed to play better there on defense. We needed to play better there. They had a drive on us. Typically, you convert on third down, you get a couple chunk plays. We have to play better as a group. The two-minute drive at the end, we had them at the 50 and they completed the longer pass. Again, we've got to do a better job as a group."
On Williams 'NFL clock knowing when to get rid of the ball':
"Everything is developing. He's a young quarterback. He's only played so many games in the NFL. Every experience is different. He's got to learn from that experience and that exposure. It's a developing thing. It's never going to be like this (upward hand motion) all the way through. Again, we're going through some adversity right now. The only way to pull through that is to pull together."
On if it's 'fair to ask more out of the defense':
"I do think it's fair because we're a football team. If we're all part of a football team, we need to score one more point than the opponent. When you don't do that, whatever the score is, it's on all of us. So that's the way we look at it."
On Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron':
"Like I said, we'll have to look at everything. We'll look at everything there on offense, defense, and kicking. Right now, when you lose three games, there's a disconnect not just on offense. It's about playing complementary football, helping each other out, seizing the opportunities, and creating momentum. So that's what it's about."
On 'noise from fans':
"Just get back to work. I know it's part of the job. It's part of it. You've got to stand strong, you've got to be the same leader you've always been and make the necessary adjustments that you need to make. Be strong and courageous throughout it all, look at each other in the eye, tell each other the truth, and that's how I know to do it."
On 'offensive struggles':
"The same thing. The same thing. We've got find that, look at everything. We've got to find the continuity there, find the structure that we need, the winning formula we need to score points."
QUARTERBACK CALEB WILLIAMS
Postgame press conference
Sunday, November 10, 2024
On the offense:
"I'd say it first starts with me. I had about two plays, two or three plays in key moments of situational ball that it didn't click in my head. One was taking -- or two was taking two sacks, two or three sacks in situations where we were able to get a field goal attempt, and then I put us out of field goal range, not throwing the ball out of bounds or over a wide receiver's head or in the dirt. The other one, which was -- should have handed the ball off to (RB D'Andre Swift). Instead, I threw it to (WR) DJ (Moore). (I) Saw the safety coming out the sky, thought I'd get it to DJ, I know he had two blockers over there, and DJ could spring it and go run for a good distance. It wasn't the right decision. Definitely this game is a lot to learn from for myself, just speaking on some of the situational things.
Obviously, there's a few passes every game that you wish you could have back and things like that. But I think situationally, this game was a great learning experience for me with some of these situations that I could have done better for sure. And then other than that, I'd say we just got to get better with execution. I think regardless of whether the play is good, bad, indifferent, whether, you know, we had people down or anything like that, we've got to go out and execute. We've got to do better with that, whether it's penalties, whether it's negative plays. I'm speaking on that, a negative play like I threw to DJ is what I'm talking about.
I think it starts there. Then from there, it's hard to stop offenses when you do those things."
On 'his internal clock':
"No. I went to (TE) Cole (Kmet). For one of them, went to Cole. And that's the first read. It's only a five-yard route. So five yards doesn't take much time. And so the second read, once I saw I believe the safety or nickel fly down on Cole, we had (WR) Keenan (Allen) returning, and it's only a five-yard route again. So those don't take much time. It just so happened that somebody won on the defensive side. I could have done better at throwing the ball out of bounds in that situation. Just knowing before the snap and having a better understanding of where we are on the field is what needs to process throughout, you know, before the snap. Other than that, no, only went through two reads in that situation and should have thrown out of bounds because we were at the kick line."
On 'if any struggles are coming from other factors':
"Speaking of myself, there's things that I don't miss, things that I haven't missed, things that just timing and rhythm and things like that. I'd say just throughout the week, before the weeks and things like that, before we got to this point in the season, doing better at being more detailed, being better at asking a little bit more for the details, being better at -- there's always things that you could be better at. So with it being my rookie season and understanding that definitely brings a lot of encouragement to me. Obviously, the situation is very frustrating because you want to go out there and execute. You want to go out there and help a defense that gets you the ball or special teams that gets you the ball on the 50- or 40-yard line three times, four times in this game. And it's tough. But to be able to get up each time and do it again and again and again, it provides me learning experiences. I think us, as an offense, you know, we do have to find it right now here in this instance just because we're going, we're getting close to, and it starts this week, playing teams like Green Bay and Detroit and Vikings and all of that. Obviously, you have to take it one
step at a time. Right now is right now. We took this loss. We have to learn from it. We have a little bit of time tonight and tomorrow. From there, we're on to Green Bay, and we've got to find ways to do it. Simple as that."
On the play calling:
"I would say, obviously, throughout the games there's going to be times when defense calls, you know, maybe a better blitz, maybe a better coverage and things like that. Obviously, you would want different plays in that situation. It comes down to execution, details, and things like that when you're speaking on better plays for those situations because the whole point of the defense, the whole point of the other team going against you, the whole point of them having other coaches and other good coaches is to be able to go out and execute against you. So we have to do a better job, starting with us, starting with myself, at situational ball, negative plays and things like that. And when you're good at not having negative plays, when you're good at executing, when you're good at executing situational ball, you're a tough team to beat regardless of what they're calling over there and regardless of what our coaches are calling on the field. When we communicate, when we do our job, when I do my job, when, you know, when we're hitting on cylinders, it's pretty tough to beat."
On if he could 'adapt to a different play caller':
"I mean, they're not going to re-invent the wheel, in a sense, you know. We're midseason, and it's not a decision for me. I have to do what (Head) Coach (Matt Eberflus) says. I have to deal with whatever decision he makes, and I have to be fine with it. Will I be able to adapt? Yes, I will. We'll be able to adapt, whatever decision Coach makes. From there, we have to go out and execute and win games."
On 'his confidence in Eberflus':
"Am I confident in my head coach? Yes, I'm confident in my head coach. They brought me here for a reason. They brought all of us here for a reason. As players, when we're in the locker room, we know how good we are. We know how good we can be. Right now, we're not executing, we're not hitting on cylinders, and we have all the confidence in each other, to be honest with you. I've been in some locker rooms -- and I'm a young guy, I know, but I've also been in some locker rooms that you're losing and it's pretty rough in the locker room. Obviously, after a loss, it's pretty rough.
To have the stretch we've had so far and the confidence that these guys have in me, the confidence that these guys have in each other, talking about the players, I think that's a part of Coach Eberflus instilling that confidence and voicing that confidence of us coming together and being together. Like I've said before, obviously, there's okay teams, there's good teams, and there's great teams. It starts with the players. Right now, we have an event -- and it's kind of what I go by in my life. We have an event, and the most important thing, because you can't always control the event, the most important thing is for us to respond. Our response equals the outcome, whether it's good or bad or indifferent."
